Was Adam Really the First Man?

It is fascinating that in a bid to make sense of certain Bible narratives, some Christians resort to conjectures when, frankly, all that is actually needed is careful attention to details.

The first chapter of the book of Genesis gives a summative account of the story of creation and this includes the creation of man on the sixth day (Genesis 1:26–31).

Genesis 1:26–28(NKJV)

26 - Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

27 - So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

28 - Then God blessed them….

The second chapter begins by showing us that God finished the work of creation and rested on the seventh day.

Interestingly, this chapter goes ahead to give an account of the creation of a man.

Genesis 2:7(NKJV)

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

This man was referred to as Adam (verse 19).

The bone of contention now is that some explain that the creation of Adam in Chapter 2 was so many years after the first creation of man in Chapter 1. This assertion is that the creation of man in these two chapters are entirely different events; hence, human beings existed before Adam.

Some even attempt to use “history” to support this claim. Sadly, today, history is almost like a puppet which some can make to say what they want. Hence, not every “historical” claim today is verified.

One of the major issues here is lack of proper attention to biblical patterns of writing.

For one, it is logical enough that, to avoid confusion and a boring style, when two separate events happen simultaneously in two different places, one will be documented before the other. This does not necessarily mean that the event documented first happened before the other. For example, if a newscaster is making a report of two football matches that were played at the same time, it is logical that they will report one before the other and not sandwich the details.

This is what happened between Genesis 37 and Genesis 39. Chapter 37 ends with Joseph being sold to Potiphar. Chapter 38 shifts focus to what happened to Judah and his sons. Chapter 39 picks it back up from where Chapter 37 ended—Joseph being sold to Potiphar. The story in Chapter 38 which took several years apparently happened while Joseph was already in Potiphar's house (and obviously not while he was being auctioned) but it was arranged this way for the sake of order and style.

Furthermore, Genesis 10 gives a genealogy of the descendants of Noah. One of these men was a great man called Nimrod.

Genesis 10:8–10(NKJV)

8 - Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth.

9 - He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, "Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD."

10 - And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

This chapter proceeds to highlight different generations after Nimrod.

However, in the following chapter (Chapter 11), the writer goes ahead to focus on the time of Nimrod, when the tower of Babel was built in a plain in the land of Shinar.

Genesis 11:1–4,9(NKJV)

1 - Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.

2 - And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.

3 - Then they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.

4 - And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."

9 - Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

So we see this is one of the writing styles in the Bible—to give a summative account of a series of events and afterwards focus on one of them that is striking.

This is exactly what happened between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2—we have a summary of the creation story in the former and then, in the latter, the writer focuses on one of the major creatures (man), to expatiate how God made him from dust (and how he made the woman from him).

So these two chapters are not talking about two separate creation stories of different men.

Besides, the books of the Bible are not arranged in exactly chronological order. (For better explanation on this, listen to the series: The Bible and the Believer: A Practical Approach to Bible Study.) So we need to be conversant with the writing styles in the Bible.

From Genesis 5, we see further that Chapters 1 and 2 refer to the one and same man (Adam).

Genesis 5:1–4(NKJV)

1 - This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.

2 - He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.

3 - And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

4 - After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters.

We must learn to stick with the Bible's narratives and not try to fashion addendums of our own in a bid to embellish the stories or satisfy our inquisitive minds. This is respecting the sanctity of the Bible.

So, arguments about who Cain later married (ch. 4:17) and the identities of the people he was afraid of (ch. 4:14–15) should find their answers here:

1. Adam and Eve were still alive.

2. They had several other children and we should not conclude on when they were born based on assumption.

3. Cain's fears were in a prospective sense and not based on a retrospective or present reality.

4. Marrying a sibling only became an issue several centuries later.

5. In a time where men lived for well over 800 years, we cannot logically put them in the confines of the same factors affecting us in a time when the average life expectancy is roughly 70 years. (This great difference speaks for itself.)

See these:

1 Corinthians 15:45,47(NKJV)

45 - And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

47 - The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.

Acts 17:24–26(NKJV)

24 - God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.

25 - Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.

26 - And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.

Victor Ibosiola © 2024

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